A small glossy figure with a glowing blue and violet four-pointed star for a head, in a black beanie, eye mask and navy striped jersey, leaps over a single waist-high section of metal highway guardrail standing alone in a bright marble plaza, a grey sack over one shoulder. There is open ground on both sides of it. Behind, three workers in hard hats and high-visibility vests are bolting an identical second section of guardrail into the plaza beside a truck and traffic cones.
Illustration.

Only High I.Q. Individuals Need Apply

Updated

On September 14 the only guardrail AI needed was a high-IQ president. Five days later it needed a force and a czar.

Two Truth Social posts, five days apart. The second announces a job that already existed and was vacated in March, an enforcement plan that names no new law, and a force nobody has yet defined.

Monday, September 14 — the guardrail. Posted to Truth Social: "The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!" He dismissed new AI rules entirely, calling the push to limit the technology a "SICK conspiracy" that only China benefits from. Collected at the time in Vance Wants to Safeguard Trump's Safeguard.

Saturday, September 19 — the guardrail gets a force. Also Truth Social: "For this purpose, I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS, in my First Term. To that end, I will be announcing, in the near future, the AI 'Czar' — Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!" CNN reported the post.

Still no new law. From the same post: "we will also be looking for BAD, and we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System." And: "We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry."

There was already an AI czar. Venture capitalist David Sacks held the role until March, when he stepped down on reaching his time limit as a special government employee. He now chairs the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The post announces a role that existed and was vacated six months ago.

What the post did not say. CNN asked the White House what the czar's duties would be, whether anyone is in mind for it, and whether the AI Force would be a branch of the military the way Space Force is.

The day before, in court. A lawsuit filed Friday, September 18 in the Northern District of California alleges that Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google broke antitrust law by coordinating a slowdown, reducing the value of paid subscriptions. The plaintiffs date the coordination to September 12, when Anthropic's Dario Amodei published an essay urging the industry to decelerate. Four days earlier the same push had been called a conspiracy against the industry. Both cannot be imaginary.

Through victory, my chains are broken.